There are some moments that change your life forever. In the days after, you wonder what could have done to change the outcome. Maybe if you had just made a tiny different decision, your world could have been as it always was. If I had skipped my Algebra class on the second last Friday before Christmas Break, I could have avoided many of the terrible things that followed.

I knew something was wrong soon after I stepped through the door. I put my bag on the floor next to my desk, and took out my copy of Pride and Prejudice – I was one of the first students here It was just me and a red-headed guy named Chris I remembered from my middle school. I read, lost in another world, as the classroom filled up with students. The classroom was filled with noise. I could hear Amanda chattering to the girl beside her about someone's Instagram post.

"I can't believe she's in Rome for three months in the middle of school year. Did you see her sunset picture? It was amazing!"
The class was completely full of students, but Mr. Davidson was nowhere to be seen. That's strange. He's usually the first one here. I wonder where he is? A few seconds later, my unspoken question was answered. Mr. Davidson walked into the room, followed by a petite girl with jet black hair. She seemed familiar, but it took my brain a few seconds to make the connection. It was probably because of Friday fatigue.

"That's the girl I tripped yesterday, the one I saw this morning," I thought.

"Smooth," James snorted.

I jumped – I hadn't realized I'd spoken out loud. "It's not like you're the epitome of gracefulness," I quipped back.

James sighed. "For the millionth time, that was not my fault. And no charges were filled so... Just shut up!"
I laughed – the whole freshman year had seen the incident at the start of the year pep rally. It was never brought up now, though. Somethings were best never, ever spoken of. Surprisingly, James grinned too.

Mr. Davidson walked to the front of the class, the girl lagging slightly behind him. He spoke to the class. "Listen up. Today will be a quiet work period on the question booklet you received last class, with a brief lesson about halfway through the period. Serena, a girl from my morning senior class, will be taking a test here, so be as quiet as is humanly possible."

I glanced at the girl – Serena. Somehow, I thought the name didn't suit her. I shook my head. So now I'm a judge of what names suit a person? What is wrong with me? For the first twenty minutes of class, I worked at a slightly slower pace than usual, but not just because of the girl. I couldn't shake the feeling that something very terrible was about to happen.

I tried to reason with myself. What kind of bad thing could happen to me in the middle of math class? I just probably have read too many dystopian books lately. Feeling reassured, I directed my attention to the front as the teacher began his lesson. I was taking notes about negative reciprocals when I heard a thud. And then another one, louder this time. The entire ground seemed to vibrate, the way it did in the earthquake we had in the city when I was little – I remember falling off my chair. My water bottle fell off the desk, bouncing off my backpack and landing on the ground without breaking.

Is this an earthquake? It was the only explanation that made sense to me. I looked around. The rest of the class seemed just as confused as I felt. The only one who didn't seem confused was Serena the senior. She seemed tense as a bowstring. I spent a few seconds trying to read her expression. The emotion I thought I saw in her eyes wasn't exactly fear, it was more like anxiety. What was she anxious about, though?
The third thud sounded more like an explosion. The glass of the classroom window shattered, hitting a few kids near the left, who shrieked as the glass hit their skin. The ground shook, and the door slammed shut with such force that my hair stood up. Panic coursed through my veins. I glanced at Mr. Davidson. My mother had always drilled into us kids that we should trust authority figures in a crisis. Actually, the person I'd trust the most was her, but a teacher was pretty much the next best thing.

I did not find whatever security I was expecting from his expression. He was deathly pale and sweating, his hands shaking. He looked as if he was about to have a heart attack, as he made his way to the back of the classroom to try to open the door. It wouldn't budge. He then tried to use the phone on the wall. I assumed he was calling the office, not his family to say his final goodbyes. Oh my god. Final Goodbyes... I clenched my fist. It'd do me no good to go down this route. I was not going to die today. It was just an earthquake. Rescue teams would come and pry the door open, and we would all be fine. The thought comforted me.

But then again, things didn't always go the way I expected them to. The whole classroom was filled with noise now, people whispering anxiously to each other. I saw a few kids pull out their phones, then curse loudly. Amanda seemed to have had the same thought. She groaned. "The Wi-Fi isn't working, and the cell's down. Must be the earthquake."

"So, we're stuck here, then?" The girl sitting next to her asked.

"Yes, but I'm sure we'll be out of here soon-" She trailed off, glancing towards the direction of the shattered window with open horror.

I looked in the direction she was looking. What the heck? A woman, who looked like she was in her late twenties, was coming through the window. She wasn't using a ladder or anything, she was actually floating – no, flying – into the classroom, as if she was being held in the air by an invisible rope. She was wearing a black leather jacket decorated with weird symbols - hieroglyphics, maybe? The left half of her hair was long and straight, but the right half was completely shaven, exposing red tattoos on her scalp that reached all the way down to her neck. All though all this alone would have made the woman the strangest person I'd ever seen, that wasn't what was causing my heart to beat so fast, or what caused me to feel faint.

The woman had numerous scars on her face and neck, the same colour as her tattoos, only distinguishable because they were puffy and blistering. They could be burn wounds, I guess. Her lips were unnaturally red and pulled into a malicious smile as she came through the window and surveyed the class. She looked like wolves I'd seen in a documentary, surveying a heard of deer for signs of weakness. She looked like she was searching for prey. And we were her prey. This is not good. This is really not good.

"It's a Friday, shouldn't this kind of thing happen on a Monday?" I said out loud, my voice barely a whisper.

Behind me, Amanda laughed slightly, her voice trembling. "Well, I hope next time our classroom is invaded by a scary woman who looks like she's about to eat us, it's on a Monday."

We were silent after that.

You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom. The only noise was coming from the woman with the red tattoos, who landed on the ground with a thump. Through the glassless window, I could see that several figures dressed like her were floating their way to us the same way she had. I glanced around the classroom furiously, trying to find something – just the smallest hint of what to do – in the faces of my classmates. There were a variety of expressions: open horror, fear, and those beaming in wonder like their dreams had come true. Most looked like they felt a mixture of the three. Looking at our teacher didn't help. His eyes were half closed and he was slouched on the floor. His mouth was pulled in a taut line.

The woman walked to the front of our classroom, her boots giving off a metallic sound as they collided with the floor. She was less than a meter away from me, since I sat at the front of the classroom. My legs felt like jelly. Angie always told me one day I'd regret being a teacher's pet. I guess she was right.

"Well, alright." The woman said, surveying the class. She had a strange accent, but my mind was too frantic to make any connections. "So, this is how it's going to go." She spoke slowly, as if we were four-year-olds still learning the English language. "The majority of you are useless. In fact, seeing a superior being like me is likely the best moment of your meaningless lives."

A superior being? What is she talking about? She seemed like a supremacist of some sort, but I wasn't sure why she believed she was better than us. Was it her weird tattoos, the whole floating thing, or something else? Maybe she's just insane. But insane or not, the woman still extremely intimidating. I could only pray that an emergency team would get here soon, and bust the door open.

The women continued speaking. Her mouth was ticked upwards in a smile, showing hints of unnaturally white teeth that looked too sharp to be normal. "However, some of you –" she paused. I winced as I heard the screech of her nails tearing into the wood of a desk near mine. The girl sitting there looked like she was about to pass out. "Are a cut above the rest, so to say. You have abilities beyond the comprehension of the mindless sheep you call colleagues and friends. It is my duty to find those people, and teach them how to overcome humanity's brainwashing. Now, to find those people..."

With a quick flick of her wrist, the women summoned the other figures hovering outside the window. They entered the classroom, creating a chorus of thuds that caused my desk to tremble. She pulled out a sphere made out of a whiteish metal that looked like something a fortune telling ball. My head felt like it was spinning as I tried to piece everything together. She spoke of humanity as if she wasn't a part of our race. So, if she's not human, what is she? And what is she looking for?

Besides the women and her followers, everyone in the class sat motionless, silent as everything unfolded – and I was no exception. Everyone except for the senior sitting in the back who snorted at the tattooed woman's words. All the tension that I'd seen in her face earlier melted away, leaving some other emotion. Serena was looking at the woman with pure venom, and I half-steam to come out of her ears. She looked at the woman the way someone would look at a particularly large cockroach on the bathroom floor. She didn't seem afraid, not at all.

The woman turned to Serena. "I'm sorry, did you find something I said amusing?" Her patronizing tone was less present. "Because the matter I'm talking about is very important."

"I don't doubt it is. Wait, just one second." Serena reached into her backpack, pulling out a smaller pouch big enough to fit a book. The material it was made of looked strange, like some sort of blue leather. She tied it to her belt and sat back up. "So, you were going to threaten me?"

The tattooed woman hissed. "I have the power here. I control whether you live or die. Testing me wouldn't be a good idea, dearie, now would it?"

I was completely absorbed in the conversation between the two, and looking around the classroom, I saw I wasn't the only one. Every single head was turned towards the two women, even the followers of the tattooed woman, who sneered at the tattooed girl, looking like large wolves on the prowl. This feels like something straight out of a movie.

Serena laughed. Her chuckles echoed through the room as I felt my jaw drop. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself, and then stared back at the woman, matching her glare. "Oh, you have all the power, do you? Maybe you should have done more research, Amelia. Or at least staked out the area instead of following Rachel around like a drooling puppy, hoping for authority of your own."
Amelia glanced at Serena in astonishment for a few brief seconds, but quickly recovered. "How would you know of power? You should be in Akin City, studying for your exams, child. Not fighting in a war you have no hope to win, and following your false saviour to certain death."

Serena stood up. "You should know better than anyone else that we have an equal chance of winning. You fought as at Woodwind, and you retreated. And you had the power of Bloodbound and your father behind you. Now, you have-" she surveyed the men standing around her – "rejects from a teen werewolf movie. Tell me, who has the upper hand?"
Amelia pointed a finger at an amused Serena. "You-you're..."

Serena grinned. "On alpha team six, yeah. Don't you remember me? One of my best friends left a pretty big scar on your shoulder, and I can't imagine you'd forget your own brother."

Amelia looked like she was going to stab Serena multiple times. "You must not be surprised that I can't remember you. It must be hard, standing in the shadows of friends with great power that you could never hope to possess. Fortunately for you, you will not have to bear the burden much longer." Amelia snapped her fingers, and her palm caught on fire. She didn't seem afraid – it wasn't burning her, I realized, with ever increasing shock. In fact, she seemed to be controlling it. It flickered in a ball on her palm as she extended her arm and hurtled the flame across the room and towards Serena's chest.

~~
Finally, the action is starting to pick up. Hope you enjoyed the chapter - don't be a silent reader.